4. He thought that the suffrage, being a conventional right, should be in the hands of those who possess the greatest degree of moral and intellectual cultivation.
5. He pointed out that the same argument that was being made in behalf of the free negroes would give the suffrage to women and children.
6. He did not think that because some negroes fought for American Independence in 1776, they were entitled to the suffrage.[64]
July 15, Mr. Marr opposed giving the free negro the suffrage for the following reasons:
1. He did not think the convention of 1796 intended to give him the suffrage, and he opposed it now for that reason.
2. He maintained that black and white men could not live together on terms of equality; they must separate or one rule the other.
3. He contended that Tennessee did not have the power to emancipate her slaves; the Constitution of the United States prevented it.
4. He concluded that the voice of the people, the admonitions of prudence and the want of power, all directed that this convention should not give, nor attempt to give, negroes, mulattoes, or Indians the suffrage.[65]
Mr. Newton Cannon of Williamson County, who was chairman of the committee of the whole, reported the constitution in its first form to the convention, July 25, 1834. Article II, Section 1, said: